Information regarding the role of these officers and action contemplated against them by the state was provided by Haryana chief secretary D S Dhesi on Monday before the high court.Ajay Sura | TNN | September 06, 2016, 16:30 IST

CHANDIGARH: Three Haryana Civil Services (HCS) officers, who had served as land acquisition collectors in Rohtak in 2005, may be in the dock for negligently acquiring the land belonging to a school run by the family trust of Haryana cabinet minister Captain Abhimanyu in Rohtak.

The state government has initiated disciplinary action proceedings against them and to recover Rs 2.5 lakh cost imposed by the Punjab and Haryana high court on the state government for acting negligently in land acquisition.

Information regarding the role of these officers and action contemplated against them by the state was provided by Haryana chief secretary D S Dhesi on Monday before the high court.

While Jogpal had conducted proceedings for acquiring land near Garhi-Bohar village of Rohtak in 2005 as land acquisition collector, written statements/replies were filed by Ram Nath, the then land acquisition collector of Hisar, and Sanjay Rai, the then land acquisition collector Rohtak.

On April 11, 2002, the Haryana government had initiated the process to acquire 850.88 acre land for public purpose for residential and commercial purpose near Garhi-Bohar.

Captain Abhimanyu's family trust Sindhu Education Foundation was also owner of a chunk of land in the area under acquisition and had even obtained change of land use (CLU) permission from the state government for setting up a school.

As per the state government policy, the land on which CLU has been granted by the state cannot be acquired.

When the land acquisition process was going on, school authorities submitted an application before the land acquisition collector and informed about CLU.

Later, Bhupinder Singh Hooda-led Congress government in 2005 released almost half of the land to private persons and builders, who were later granted CLUs for developing colonies. The school land, however, was not released and ordered to be acquired against the state's own policy.

Finding the government action to acquire school land as 'utter disregard to the law,' the HC on November 27, 2010 had imposed Rs 2.5 lakh cost and ordered inquiry to probe the role of officers.

Even the Supreme Court had upheld these orders in September 2015 but the state government did not only not take any action but failed to even act against the erring official. It was only after the HC had taken cognizance (for not complying with its orders) that the state indicted these officers.

The school established on Garhi-Bohar road, however, was set on fire during the Jat agitation for reservation violence in February.

Currently, the Goods and Services Tax (GST) is levied at 12 per cent on payments made for under-construction property or ready-to-move-in flats where completion certificate has not been issued at the time of sale.